Already in the evening I was asked to swap my next medium-haul flights for a long-haul rotation and I was given a short list of destinations from which I could choose, ending with an appealing nightstop in Miami. But it was Belo Horizonte that caught my attention. Immediately I tried to confirm if the assigned airplane was "Oscar Victor". Yes it is, they replied. Then I answered: I can take the flight to Belo Horizonte. Probably my question sounded very strange because nobody would choose a certain aircraft over a popular destination, among the crews!

As soon as the call ends, a strong feeling of hapiness started to invade my mind when I realized the unique opportunity that was given to me. Even if I knew that until the very last moment there could be changes to the aircraft flying to Belo Horizonte the next morning.

I was born in the early 80s, so I belong to the "Air Portugal" corporate identity generation even if I can recall many things from the prolonged phase-out period of the previous "Transportes Aéreos Portugueses" monogram. I'm an airline brat of TAP which has my admiration and respect for 35 long years and my full dedication since 2008. I'm really proud of it but I'm totally unable to explain it with words. I faced the opportunity of being part of the very first flight of our new retrojet as a remarkable milestone in my own career. Because of the early departure next day, I took a quick dinner, packed my bags and went to sleep. But before going to bed, I checked once more in our system if the aircraft assigned remained CS-TOV: so far, so good.

I woke up at 6:15am and my first action is to confirm again the tail number of my flight. My scepticism was because this would be the very first flight of this aircraft operating for our airline and I knew of some certification delays and false departures the previous days.

Subimos todos as escadas para a porta 1L o que permite apreciar de perto o escudo português encimado pelo nome do nosso país. Nome outrora envergado pelo icónico Boeing 747 com matrícula CS-TJA, símbolo de uma grandeza e de uma época dourada que não mais a TAP (e a própria aviação no geral...) logrou repetir.We boarded via door 1L so we could see in detail the portuguese shield on the nose of the Airbus A330 with the name "PORTUGAL" on its top. The name of our country was given in the past to our first Boeing 747 with tail number CS-TJA, a symbol of greatness and a golden era in aviation that TAP (and most airlines of that time) never repeated again.

Atravessando a executiva ainda intacta da Singapore Airlines, dirijo-me à galley junto às portas 2 onde é dado o segundo briefing do dia. É-nos garantido o tempo necessário para executar com calma os nossos checklists que previsivelmente seriam mais demorados tendo em conta que seria a primeira vez de todos naquele avião e no traço -300 do A330. Tínhamos também a nosso favor o facto de o embarque ser em posição remota o que quase sempre dá uma folga de tempo maior. Ao contrário da executiva, os bancos da classe económica receberam novos estofos com o design mais recente da companhia. Contudo, não existindo economy plus, foram todos revestidos com cabeceiras verdes.We walked through the entire business class - still intact from Singapore Airlines - towards the galley near doors 2, where we were given the second briefing of the day. We were told to complete our pre-flight checklists without being stressed with the usual time pressure before passengers arrive. For all of us, it was the first time on that aircraft that came from another airline, and also our first time flying the dash -300. So it was important to guarantee that everything was on its place and to acquaint ourselves with the emergency equipment and its location. Because we were parked in a remote position we gained a few more minutes before boarding started. While business class was still intact with Singapore Airlines' pattern, the economy class was given new seat cushions with TAP's most recent design for our new long haul product. Since there is no economy plus on this aircraft (usually marked with red color) all seats were given green headrests.

Top Executive

Economy Class

Em breve (quase) tudo estaria pronto para a nova coqueluche da companhia ganhar vida. O número de reservas prometia encher aquele avião com uma capacidade total de 285 passageiros, trinta dos quais em classe executiva. Devido a algumas dúvidas de última hora sobre a documentação do avião o voo atrasou quase uma hora. Foram minutos de alguma ansiedade da minha parte que contrastou com a invulgar serenidade e alheamento dos passageiros perante o atraso.Soon, almost everything would be ready for that beautiful plane to gain life. The booking for the flight promised to occupy the majority of those 285 seats, thirty of them in business class. Due to some last minute problems with the aircraft's documentation, our departure was delayed for almost one hour. For me it represented long minutes of anxiety that compared with the unusual indifference of our passengers when having such a long delay.
Mas tudo seria resolvido em tempo útil e assim que é anunciado "portas em armed & crosscheck", o já habitual filme que é um voo começa a desenrolar-se com naturalidade. E foi às 10:37 que passadas tantas décadas, voltou a ganhar asas a pintura dos "Transportes Aéreos Portugueses". Tive de me segurar firme para conter alguma emoção do significado que aquele momento representava para mim, perante a indiferença de todos os passageiros. A maioria não eram portugueses (existiriam dois ou três?) e como tal não se identificavam com a história da companhia e/ou provavelmente nem repararam na pintura retro... Não houve também nem no momento do embarque nem durante o voo qualquer referência ou comemoração daquele voo de estreia. Um voo como qualquer outro, exceto para mim!Those problems were solved in a timely manner and soon our chief purser announced "doors in armed & crosscheck". Finally, the usual flight sequence starts with everything flowing normally. And it was when my watch marked 10:37am that the "Transportes Aéreos Portugueses" livery took off again after so many years of absence. I had to hold on to myself, trying to contain the emotion of that moment and what it represented to me. But I think I was alone in that moment because most of our passengers were not portuguese and they didn't care about TAP's history or didn't even notice the different livery of the aircraft. Unfortunately, there was no reference to that premiere from the airline. It was like just another regular flight for everybody, except for me!
Descolagem da pista 03 de Lisboa seguida de volta à direita para apontarmos ao Oceano Atlântico seguindo sobre o rio Tejo. Através do óculo de observação da minha estação consigo avistar o meu prédio à beira-rio ao mesmo tempo que aprecio a "Passarola" pintada na face interior da winglet.We took off from runway 03 of Lisbon Airport, followed by a right turn heading to the Atlantic Ocean over Tagus River. Through my observation window on the right side of the aircraft, I could see the building where I live located near the north riverside at the same time I appreciate the beautiful blue bird known as "passarola" painted on the inner surface of the winglet.
Em relação ao equipamento de cabine, algumas novidades: os flaps dos caixotes do lixo dos lavabos têm pedais o que torna todo o processo de deitar algo fora muito mais higiénico; as galleys estão dotadas de um saca-rolhas fixo com um ar muito pouco ortodoxo (e até intimador!) mas que parecem funcionar bem; e finalmente existe também nas galleys o sistema GWDU sobre o qual, por acaso tinha lido recentemente numa publicação da Airbus e que se não fosse essa feliz coincidência (sem sequer saber que estes aviões da Singapore Airlines o tinham) ficaria uns bons minutos intrigado a olhar para aquilo! Os trash compactors apresentam ainda o logótipo da SIA. Outra coisa boa: muito espaço para arrumação, um conceito em vias de extinção nos aviões!Regarding the passengers' cabin and galleys, there are a few novelties for us: the waste bins of the toilets have a foot pedal; the galleys are equipped with fixed corkscrews - so strange they are that they look somewhat threatening, although they work pretty good; finally, galleys also have installed the new GWDU (Galley Waste Disposal Unit) about which I had recently read in a special edition about the A330 of the Airbus FAST magazine. If it wasn't that happy coincidence I'm quite sure I would have spent some minutes figuring out what was that! The trash compactors still had the Singapore Airline's bird logo. Lots of stowage and closets always make a crew happy and this airplane has plenty of them.

Despite being a new aircraft from what we are used to and with all the extra challenges that a different equipment represents, we smoothly adapted and this A330-300 ended to be a very easy airplane to deal with.

The return flight was operated by an Airbus A330-200 but upon arrival at Lisbon Airport we saw CS-TOV parked in a remote stand not far away from us. We didn't want to miss the opportunity to take a group photo in front of the airplane that celebrates the 72th anniversary of TAP and pays an important tribute to our nation - Portugal. And I'm really proud of it!